NY let rafting company operate despite charges, complaints

State's regulating system for guides draws criticism

Associated Press

Associated Press

Updated 8:01 am, Monday, November 19, 2012

FILE - In this July 3, 2012 file photo, rafters navigate on the Hudson River in North River, N.Y. New York, unlike many states, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, regulates outdoor guides themselves, not the companies. That focus, say critics, allows companies to continue operating even when their guides have endangered any of the thousands of outdoors-lovers who engage their services. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

FILE - In this July 3, 2012 file photo, rafters navigate on the...

FILE - In this July 3, 2012 file photo, rafters navigate on the Hudson River in North River, N.Y. New York, unlike many states, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, regulates outdoor guides themselves, not the companies. That focus, say critics, allows companies to continue operating even when their guides have endangered any of the thousands of outdoors-lovers who engage their services. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

ALBANY — New York kept the owner of Hudson River Rafting Co. on its list of 2,500 licensed outdoor guides, despite two charges against him of reckless endangerment and a dozen other tickets citing his guides with unlicensed whitewater trips over the past five years.

That's because New York — unlike many states, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service — regulates the guides themselves, not the companies. That focus, say critics, allows companies to continue operating even when their guides have endangered any of the thousands of outdoors-lovers who engage their services.

In addition, New York rarely revokes the licenses of guides.

In one deadly case this fall, a Columbus, Ohio, woman drowned on one of the company's Adirondack whitewater trips headed by licensed guide Rory Fay, 37. Fay was charged with criminally negligent homicide, accused of rafting drunk when he and client Tamara Blake, 53, were thrown into the rapids of the Indian River on Sept. 27. Her boyfriend was also on the boat.

Meanwhile, owner Patrick Cunningham again faces reckless endangerment charges after he allegedly left a raft of clients he was personally guiding this spring to fend for themselves. The New York attorney general has since shut down his rafting business and the state subsequently suspended Cunningham's and Fay's guide licenses.

Cunningham and his lawyer, Jason Britt, have challenged the court-ordered shutdown but declined several requests to discuss the case. One of the early Adirondack rafting guides, he has taken thousands of clients down the Hudson over three decades. He and Fay denied the criminal charges. Whitewater kayakers often ride the rapids on their own, without guides.

In other parts of the U.S., authorities focus on the companies, not the individual guides, according to David Brown, executive director of the American Outdoor Association in Knoxville, Tenn. He predicted New York will change its approach now.

"(New York) regulated the guides, not the companies," Brown said. "The guide can make a mistake. The company can continue to operate. That's a unique situation."

At San Juan Mountain Guides in Colorado, which has special permits to operate in several national forests and parks, owner and director Nate Disser said there's no state guide certification like New York's, and the company bears the responsibility for what they do.

"We have to prove our guides meet some sort of minimum standard" to federal authorities, he said. The company has its own manuals and training and is credentialed by the American Mountain Guides Association.

New York's DEC revoked no guide licenses in the past year, while receiving five complaints, spokeswoman Lisa King said. Cunningham's and Fay's licenses will be revoked if it's determined they broke applicable law, she said.

Asked why Cunningham kept his license through years of trouble, the agency didn't reply.

"Most of your reputable guides belong to professional organizations," said Sonny Young, whose Adirondack Foothills guide service out of Saranac Lake includes hunting, fishing and canoeing. An officer of the New York State Outdoor Guides Association, he said that group has a code of ethics that includes truth in advertising and obeying the laws and game limits.

"With guides that are professional, they'll ask you to sign a waiver, a medical release form because they want to know what your health conditions are, and they want you to know there are inherent dangers of going into the field," he said.

"Anybody who just takes your money at the trailhead, without some kind of safety talk, who doesn't let you know they're insured, that may be suspicious."